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Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:11 pm
by D.o.S.
colossus wrote:Well fuck, that is just beautiful.

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 12:03 pm
by skullservant
I'm almost positive that the chassis is here. I had a slip in my PO Box for a large parcel and that's the only thing I can think of. So I'm going to stop by the post office tomorrow before I head to work and pick it up. Going to gut the current valve junior chassis so I can make a drill template for myself as well!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Wed Jan 08, 2014 10:28 pm
by misterstomach
i'm really excited to see how this comes out. i've been wanting to get a valve junior and mod it. probably won't go as far as you are, but i'm excited to see what you do.

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2014 5:18 pm
by skullservant
Got the chassis in before I went to work today. Seems that they might have sent a power cord instead of the plug, so I emailed them about that. If I can help it, I might try to reuse the original plug from the old chassis as it already has a fuse holder in it

Pictures tonight after I grab the second package that has more parts!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:30 am
by skullservant
Just spent all night drilling and working on stuff.

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Managed to salvage the old power receptacle so I'm going to use it instead of the separate plug and fuse holder I was going to use.

Managed to get away with only miss-drilling one hole without laying out or finding a template online. Just measured with paper and eyes.
My BIGGEST mistake was not seating the turretboard before I decided to drill the pilot light/lamp. Turns out in it's original position the lamp base would hit the turret board, so like any normal human I hand cut an aluminum washer and polished it and seated the power switch where the lamp was going to be. I need to gauge where the power switch is now to seat the lamp.

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Other than that really the only other thing I've got to do besides gauge the lamp hole is finish cleaning up the tube socket holes. I only used a drill, some bits, and a Dremel with 2 attachments to get through the build, and that's why it took so freaking long. Took a solid hour and a half just to seat the power supply into the square hole that I dremeled into submission.

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Power supply post drill, pre Dremel:

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Post Dremel and seating:

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Also recycled the old grommets and mounted them:

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Going to use some beefy as hell kind of Orange style, kind of not knobs.

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Oh, and note to self, ALWAYS double check before drilling into turretboard from the other side. I drilled into a capacitor, so I had to order a new one to be safe.

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Inside of the chassis:

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Anyways, like I said just a little bit more drilling to finish up the chassis then I can focus on mounting hardware. Still waiting on my Switchcraft output jacks and now this new capacitor, so I probably won't be able to start wiring until next week.

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Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:42 am
by AxAxSxS
Wow man! looking good! I've also experienced the joys of modding a chassis with a dremmel. Good times! :facepalm:
This is going to kick all kinds of ass.

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:19 am
by skullservant
Thanks man! I'm really glad the plug hides some of the really trashy dremel work. Doesn't help that I was using wood bits on metal, although I found a pretty tough bit that I was able to use. Tonight I'll be getting a circular metal bit and cleaning up the tube sockets and gauging the new pilot hole.

Then after that I'll drop the board in and start mounting hardware!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 11:48 am
by ever
Dayum. Thats gonna look awesome!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:47 pm
by odontophobia
This makes me want to rehouse the VTM60 in a new chassis and a new head shell.

Then I remember that it's a ton of hard work and I'm bound to fuck it up... plus dem dip switches. fuck it.

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 10:49 am
by skullservant
Got an actual washer and gauged it for the switch, looks a little cleaner to me:

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Got a new Dremel bit and cleaned up the tube socket holes, also got the iron mounted and did a test fit:

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This is with all the hardware mounted but none of the guts hooked up. Still waiting on output jacks though, along with that cap that I drilled into's replacement:

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Started the wiring yesterday as well. Just have a few more wires to connect from the power transformer, and then when the output jacks come in, that wiring as well.
Opped to include the master volume mod again as I really can't even crank 5w sometimes in the apartment.

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Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:24 pm
by sonidero
OH GAWD I CANT WAIT TILL THE PAIRING!!!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:05 am
by skullservant
Got the heaters wired last night along with the rectification, and was picking Nick's brain about how I want to wire the light and the switch. Gonna run the heaters to the light and then wire the power switch like normal. I'm hoping I do not need to get a different switch since I only ordered a SPDT. I also gotta find that 6.3v bulb that's around here somewhere....

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2014 3:47 pm
by skullservant
Just need three more parts in before I can finish it off and fire it up for the first time :!!!:

-new DPDT toggle switch for power (will be here tomorrow)
-replacement power filtering cap (will be here tomorrow)
-output jacks (hopefully here tomorrow)

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Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 2:27 am
by Ryan
This looks like about the coolest funnest project ever.. beauty build buddy! I'd like to do something like this too, can I bum a BOM from you? Bet it's gonna sound awesome!

Re: Skully's First Tube Amp Rebuild- Valve Junior Collaborat

Posted: Thu Jan 16, 2014 6:10 am
by AxAxSxS
That's so rad man. I should really try my hand at this. the circuit looks so simple there. Beautiful.